The IDC: Why It Sucks, and What We Should Do About It.

As you know if you read my last blog, last Saturday I traveled to Albany to meet with other Indivisible group reps to see what we can to do be part of #BlueWave2018. One of NYS’s special challenges is to get rid of some fake Democrats we have in our State Senate. I’m talking about the Independent Democratic Conference, AKA the IDC.

You would think NY was a blue state, because we have a majority of Dems in the State Senate. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. And that’s what’s been holding up our progressive agenda items like Single Payer Healthcare, criminal justice reform and Dreamer protection.

“The IDC (Independent Democratic Conference) is a group of 8 Democrats in the NY State Senate who have formed a power sharing agreement with Republicans. This coalition has given Republicans a majority in the State Senate which means progressive legislation is easily killed by the majority.” (Indivisible BK) To learn more, download their pamphlet.

Why would Dems caucus with Republicans? Well, they get paid off. Yes, it’s that disgusting. The payola is called “Lulus”. This video, “Lululand” will explain.

So what can we do about it? After all, our state Senator is Carl Marcellino–a regular old Republican who is up for re-election in 2018. According to Ballotpedia he won less than 55 % of the vote in 2016 and Hillary won the district. So he could lose, if a strong candidate makes it out of the primary in September.

So what can we do about the IDC, since we don’t have an IDC member as a Senator in our district (we’re district 5, BTW). Well, we have a great neighboring district that has been called the “Key to Albany”.

Brad Schwartz, in District 7 (“Lucky #7”) could deliver Democrats full Party control of the State. Brad recently joined IGC at the fundraiser we held for Liuba Grechen Shirley. He is, without a doubt, a progressive. He will deliver all those fabulous progressive reforms we want in this Blue state of ours. And with 30% more registered Democrats than Republicans, this is a real possibility. This is where we come in. As good neighbors, we have the opportunity to help Brad. We can amplify his message by following him on Facebook and Twitter and sharing his posts. We can donate and fundraise, we can help walk petitions to get him on the ballot, and we can register more voters and Get Out the Vote in his district. Please take a moment to learn more about Brad and consider what you can do to help flip this neighboring district. And make a commitment to doing at least one thing to flip this nearby district Blue. Brad will repay you, by voting progressive!